Members of the far-right Homeland party are reportedly helping to organise protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers across the UK, raising fears of extremist infiltration into anti-migrant demonstrations.
The Homeland party, a splinter group of Patriotic Alternative, Britain’s largest far-right organisation, has been behind the creation of multiple Facebook groups in recent weeks to expand protests similar to those that erupted at the Bell Hotel in Epping.
According to social media posts, protests are planned this weekend in at least 20 towns and cities, including Wethersfield, Peterborough, and Nuneaton. Activists have used slogans such as “Stop the Boats” and “Women Wear Pink” to mobilise locals, echoing earlier protests in Epping.
Several organisers named in these groups have direct links to Homeland. Profiles of Tom King, Jennifer Jardine, Matt Alexander, Adam Clegg, and Andrew Piper reveal involvement in far-right activism, with some pictured alongside Homeland material. Another organiser, Callum Barker, also ran groups coordinating the Epping protests. Posts from Barker and Piper have openly encouraged communities near asylum hotels to stage demonstrations, declaring: “We are united in this struggle and in the end we will win.”
Concerns have grown that extremists are exploiting local anger to spark racial tensions. Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick was recently photographed at the Epping protest near former British National Party strategist Eddy Butler, while anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate reported that a surge of union and St George’s flags on lamp-posts had been orchestrated by figures close to Tommy Robinson.
The government is preparing for a new wave of protests after a high court ruling blocked the placement of asylum seekers at the Bell Hotel. The case followed allegations that an asylum seeker there had assaulted a teenage girl, which further fuelled anti-migrant unrest.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the government is committed to closing asylum hotels “as swiftly as possible” under a national programme designed to avoid displacing problems elsewhere. Security Minister Dan Jarvis added that all hotels will be closed before the end of the current parliament.
Meanwhile, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage pledged to introduce “mass deportation” policies, claiming daily charter flights could remove thousands of small-boat arrivals. He argued Britain faces a “massive crisis” posing both a national security risk and growing public unrest.
